Clair Matin Roses

History of Clair Matin Roses:

The rose Clair Matin was first bred in France in 1960 by Marie Louise Meilland. Marie was the wife of the world renowned rose breeder Francis Meilland, who is often most notably associated with the Baccara and Peace roses. The Clair Matin was created by crossing the floribunda Fashion rose, with a pollen plant that was the offspring of the Independence rose, the Orange Triumph rose, and the Phyllis Bide rose.

The result of this crossing is a beautiful deep pink climbing rose that will grow anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall with a width of about 4 feet across at full maturity. Clair Matin roses produce rather large blooms that average about 5 inches in diameter and have a sweetbriar smelling fragrance. The blooms tend to have just a handful of petals upwards of 8 to 11. The rose Clair Matin is often grown as either a climbing rose or a tall shrub rose with ample pruning each season. Its alluring fragrance makes it a great choice for planting next to your porch or patio.

Growing Clair Matin Roses:

The rose Clair Matin is a repeat bloomer that will thrive in zones 6 through 9 with proper care. As a repeat bloomer, this rose will give you its best performance if you can provide it with a location that gets full sun light for most of the day. As a general rule of thumb, you should try to pick a spot that gets at least 6 to 8 hours each day of sun light. If you can also provide this rose with a location that gets the morning sun, that is preferable as this will help to dry out the morning dew early and keep the leaves and plant healthier.

Clair Matin roses should also be grown in soil that is well drained. Roses typically will not do very well if the soil you grow them in stays too wet for long periods of time. This opens them up to a whole host of problems including various diseases and pests. You also should try to pick a location for the rose Clair Matin that has fairly good air circulation through your garden. Good air circulation will also keep the leaves of your roses dry and therefore, more healthy.

Planting Clair Matin Roses:

Planting the rose Clair Matin is pretty easy and just about anyone can get the job done with a little bit of time and a few basic hand tools. I always recommend to growers that before they plant their roses, they take a trip to the local garden center and pick up a bag of a good organic compost. When you dig your hole, mix in the compost with the loose soil at a ratio of 1 part compost for every 2 parts soil. This stuff makes a great amendment for just about any soil type and roses absolutely love it.

How you go about planting your Clair Matin roses depends a bit on where and how you purchased them. If you found them at a local nursery, then they were probably already established in containers and ready to bloom. These are the easiest to plant. Dig yourself a hole that is at least twice the diameter of the container and equally as deep. This will make sure that you have enough room around the root ball for your soil mix, but still keep the bud union at the same depth that it was. This is very important!

If you bought your rose Clair Matin from an online nursery, they probably shipped it to you as a bareroot plant. This is very common. The first thing you should do is soak the plant overnight in a bucket of lukewarm water to help rehydrate the roots. Then dig yourself a hole that is as wide as the longest roots, and deep enough to allow you to set the plant atop a mound of soil in the center of the hole, while still keeping the bud union an inch or two below the surface once the hole is filled.

Set your rose Clair Matin in place and spread out the roots in all directions around the mound. Then go ahead and back fill the hole, but only halfway to start. Take your garden hose and water the loose soil heavily until it flows around the roots like mud, then go ahead and back fill the hole the rest of the way. Give the soil one last heavy watering and top off any final settling that may occur. This method should ensure that no air pockets have formed. It is also recommended that you mound up some mulch around the exposed canes, for the first weeks to prevent them from drying out. Once new growth is formed, you can remove the mound back to ground level.

Caring for Clair Matin Roses:

Taking care of the rose Clair Matin is rather easy and you can follow basic rose bush care guidelines. You will want to give your roses one deep watering each week as a general rule of thumb. If you live in an unusually hot or dry region, you may find that you need to step that up to every 4 or 5 days.

You should also give your Clair Matin roses a dose of an all-purpose granular fertilizer in early spring, when the leaves begin to form. Since this is a repeat blooming variety, it will benefit greatly from additional feedings over the course of the growing season. I will typically give the second feeding right before the first big bloom, and then a third feeding sometime around mid summer to promote late season flushes.

Pruning Clair Matin Roses:

You should prune the rose Clair Matin in early spring before the leaves start to bud. This will make it much easier to see what you are doing. Start by removing all the dead wood, along with any canes that are discolored from disease. Next, prune back any lateral canes that overlap one another so the leaves do not compete for sun light once they fully open. Lastly, give your climbing rose a light pruning for shape and to encourage new growth.

This is also the time to rake up around the base of your rose Clair Matin and clean up any dead leaves and debris that may have collected around the base of the plant. Throw away this material in the trash, along with your cuttings. Never let decaying matter lay around as it could become a breeding ground for pests and diseases. I always finish up by giving my roses a fresh layer of mulch to start off the growing season.